Oliver Waterman

When I was around 14, I heard over the radio in my dad's art studio, John Williams' (guitarist) famous recording of Isaac Albéniz's Asturias-Leyenda. I instantly fell deeply in love with the sound and energy of classical guitar and collected as much music as I could find. After two years of teaching myself as much as I could through tabs and by ear, I was lucky enough to get a teacher who helped me correct some mistakes and speed up my learning process. I already taught myself some easier pieces and one J.S. Bach piece, the Bourree from Lute Suite BWV 996. Very soon after I started lessons, I dived into learning Asturias, and started to play small gigs. A local art gallery featured me during a New Years Eve city wide art festivity and from then on, I performed regularly. I've played gigs in local restaurants and have performed weddings occasionally as a classical guitarist for the better part of 18 years now. I've also been composing classical guitar music the whole time and finally released my first album of polished work. 

From about 20 through 29 I played in local bands as a guitarist, singer and bassist and was a singer/songwriter and recording artist locally. I worked with as many people as I could and played 100's of shows in that capacity. Occasionally I played classical guitar sets opening for rock bands. I even did the busker thing for a bit. I finally decided mid-summer when I was 29 that I wanted to go to school for music and get a degree in classical guitar. Since then it's been my sole focus and I'm in my last full semester before graduating. I have 1 student I've been working with since my sophomore year out of my apartment and I've also aced my pedagogy course. I'm a performance major, but the curriculum at the University of Southern Maine is geared towards making good teachers.

I am indebted to my first teacher Dennis Smith who accepted paintings from my dad in payment for lessons and worked with me to simply, help me teach myself. I was a very stubborn student in my teens and most music teachers I worked with in middle and high school couldn't teach me anything. Somehow Dennis taught me stuff.

I'm further indebted to my applied professor Keith Crook who helped me through some of the toughest learning hurdles of my life. I never learned theory before going to college. I had to learn it all right then and there. By some kind of miracle, I was able to not only learn theory, but excel in it. I just got an A last semester in Counterpoint with a 99 out of 100 on my fugue(silly paralelle 5th). I fought against learning theory for so long, trying to find any way I could of avoiding having to use standard notation, that by the time I had to actually learn it, it was like I was learning the names of the things I've known all my life. It has become one of my major passions. 

Since I've been teaching guitar, I've reinforced my perspective that everyone can learn absolutely anything. It's my belief that music is perhaps one of the easiest things to learn because of how connected we are to its production and how it can be so much more literal about human emotion than even words. With just a clarification, or a new light on something that's difficult, a student’s perspective can instantly shift from "I can't," to "I can't believe I CAN." It's less that you're being taught something new than it is that you're being shown how something you already understand, works. Sure, there are physical limitations for beginners that seem like mountains, but the work to melt those mountains away is always far less than you can imagine before starting the process. 

I'm very interactive and try to be as inspiring as possible. I want to teach, what you want to learn! My experience as a musician is very broad and I love pretty much every style from every culture. So, when I hear that you want to play some kind of Afro-Cuban feel song with serialism and tapping, I'm just as excited to help as if you wanted to learn a Bach or Tarrega piece. 

I emphasize heavily on posture and technique because, in my learning and teaching experience they help get the best results the quickest. However, I'm not a purest and I believe that there's always more than one way to skin a cat. 

I teach Nail technique however, I have a rudimentary understanding of no nail, but I’m not proficient with it.